Cryptocurrency Theft in Japan Reaches another High

According to the Japan police report, crypto theft in the country tripled during the first half of 2018. The report also showed that the most targeted cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ripple. However, the numbers behind the crypto theft report wouldn’t have been as high had the report not included one of the industry-record hacks – the Coincheck hack.

Cryptocurrency hackers were busy during the months between January and March. During that period, there were 120 incidents involving crypto thefts. On the hand, April May, and June saw the remaining 38 incidents. The numbers for the first half of 2018 tripled reaching 158 incidents, whereas during the entire 2017 there were 149 such cases.

The National Police Agency said that crypto hackers stole $540 million in cryptocurrencies. The largest share of that sum was stolen when hackers took $520 million from the cryptocurrency exchange, Coincheck.

At the end of January, Coincheck was the target of a massive hacking attack when around 260,000 Coincheck customers lost their funds. The only cryptocurrency that was missing from the exchange were NEM coins. The exchange used a single hot wallet for all NEM funds. Unfortunately, hackers managed to get the private key of the wallet where the exchange kept NEM funds. After the incident, Japan’s biggest crypto exchange offered a refund to users affected by the crypto theft. The exchange also refused to file for bankruptcy.

Japan’s daily newspaper, Asahi Shimbun believes that the Coincheck hack raised consumer awareness. For this reason, there haven’t been as many hacks in the second quarter of 2018. Additionally, the hacks that had happened involved individual accounts rather than crypto exchanges, and they account for the remaining $20 million.

This was all for this section of Bitcoin andEthereum gambling news. Stay tuned for more.